UN race inspectors were rude and dismissive, says jail chief

UN INSPECTORS who visited the UK to investigate racism were “rude, dismissive and sometimes bordering on aggressive”, a prison governor has said.

Paul Newton, governor of HMP Birmingham, said they had an “abrasive” manner of questioning that left staff feeling demoralised. In a letter seen by The Daily Telegraph, Mr Newton said one of the members of the UN working group of experts on people of African descent objected to being searched on entry even though all staff and visitors are searched.

The five-strong group visited Britain for two weeks last month and immediately produced an interim report that concluded that racism in the UK is “structural, institutional and systemic”.

It also demanded an end to the building of new prisons and suggested “limiting investment” in the criminal justice system. But the report was dismissed by the Government as a “superficial analysis” and accused the inspectors of “wrongly viewing people of African descent as a single homogenous group”.

This prompted one of the team’s members, Dominique Day, to accuse the Government of using a “familiar racial trope” because, she said, the word superficial was an “upgrade from lazy”.

The group visited London, Birmingham, Manchester and Bristol, as well as speaking to members of the equalities watchdog and members of the devolved administrations.

They also held a meeting with Kemi Badenoch, the equalities minister, who defended Britain’s record.

In his letter to the Ministry of Justice, Mr Newton said: “My team and I felt from the outset that the working group were rude, dismissive, and sometimes bordering on aggressive.”